Slow cooking apparatuses for meats including so-called barbecue pits and other like units which employ smoldering wood for fuel producing rising heat and smoke are known in the prior art. Pertinent examples of the known prior art set forth herein under 37 C.F.R. 1.56 include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,699,876; 3,841,211 and 3,974,760.
In these prior art structures, the food units which are being smoked and cooked are held on removable horizontal racks above the slow smoldering fuel near the bottom of the enclosure, the fuel not being allowed to break into an open flame during the cooking process.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,876, a collection pan for food drippings spans the cooking enclosure above the smoldering fuel and below the lowermost cooking rack. The pan prevents the drippings from falling onto the smoldering fuel and flaming up. One drawback of the arrangement is that the drip pan blocks the rising of heat and smoke in a large central area of the apparatus, thus retarding cooking in this area while allowing the heat and smoke to rise around the margins of the drip pan. Another difficulty with the prior art device is that after a time the drippings collected in the pan become over-heated and objectionable fumes are produced which can have an adverse effect on the flavor of the product being cooked. Furthermore, the location of the drip pan in the prior art reduces in a given size cooking apparatus the available space for the removable cooking or grill racks.